accidentally

adverb

ac·​ci·​dent·​al·​ly ˌak-sə-ˈdent-lē  -ˈden-tᵊl-ē 

: in an accidental or unintended manner : by accident

I accidentally deleted the file.

The lock prevents the gate from opening accidentally.

Six lionfish were accidentally released from a home aquarium in Biscayne Bay, Fla., during Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

—Alcestis Cooky Oberg

The Olympic test was thrown out after the test lab accidentally destroyed the backup sample … that's required to confirm a positive result.

—Christie Aschwanden

He bumped into her accidentally on purpose. [=he bumped into her intentionally but he tried to make it appear to be an accident]

Examples of accidentally in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

When Lucas accidentally shoots and kills a local rancher, he's sentenced to hang. —Jessica Wang, EW.com, 3 May 2025

Money grab: Passersby grab $300K in bills after security truck accidentally spills cash in Illinois Were all the dimes recovered? —Saman Shafiq, USA Today, 2 May 2025

Wyoming springing a boy accused of murder (Patrick Scott McDermott) — who accidentally shot his neighbor — from jail. —Jack Smart, People.com, 2 May 2025

After Bob accidentally unleashes a dark alter-ego called the Void and the Thunderbolts have to save everyone in the Big Apple from the new villain, Val decides the team has worth. —Eliana Dockterman, Time, 2 May 2025

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for accidentally

• detrimentally
• fundamentally
• governmentally
• incidentally
• incrementally
• instrumentally
• sentimentally
• temperamentally
• coincidentally
• environmentally
• experimentally
• mentally